Detroit 3, Calgary 1
The Calgary Flames would much rather play in their own back yard and at even strength. “Our game plan was to be more disciplined and be harder on the puck and not take unnecessary penalties,” Calgary coach Jim Playfair said. Well, sometimes the best-laid plans don’t always work out. Calgary had five penalties, two of which led to Nicklas Lidstrom’s goal at 8:13 of the game. Pavel Datsyuk and Lidstrom scored within the first 4 minutes and Detroit went on to beat Calgary 3-1, taking a 2-0 lead in their first-round series. “Getting the power plays early let us get momentum,” Lidstrom said. “It helped tremendously.” 
The Flames can only hope returning home, where they won an NHL-high 30 games during the regular season, will help them slow the Western Conference’s top-seeded team. “They’re very good in their building,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “We really wanted to take care of our business at home.” Detroit outshot Calgary 23-8 in the first period and 12-3 in the second, but led by only a goal. “Both games off the start, we spotted them two because of our lack of control,” Flames star Jarome Iginla said.
Unlike in the previous game, Detroit didn’t add two unanswered goals in the second period en route to a 4-1 victory. Calgary’s Dion Phaneuf scored a power-play goal early in the second period on a shot that was deflected and fluttered past Dominik Hasek’s glove.
The Flames went into the third within a goal because of that key score and Miikka Kiprusoff’s 33 saves through two periods. “We’re just being dumb out there,” Calgary’s Alex Tanguay said. “We’re allowing 50 shots a game and you’re not going to win any games allowing 50 shots.” Perhaps the only difference between the first period of Games 1 and 2 was that the Flames landed the first big hit. Calgary center Stephane Yelle knocked down Kirk Maltby on his first shift, but the Flames lost any momentum they had 1:02 into the game when Datsyuk’s wrist shot went over Kiprusoff’s blocker.
Game 3 is Tuesday night at Calgary. Home, sweet home.
Ottawa 4, Pittsburgh 2
No matter who is in net, they lose. No matter who skates on their blue line, or how many 50-goal scorers they have, they lose. Ten trips to the NHL postseason in the last 10 seasons, and still no appearances in the Stanley Cup finals. When they twice lost third-period leads during their series-tying, 4-3 loss Saturday on home ice to the young, inexperienced but enormously talented Pittsburgh Penguins, the Senators could sense the doom and gloom among their fan base. Now, it’s Pittsburgh that’s looking nervously at the front-runner, aware that a loss in the next game could effectively end the series. Or the same feeling the Senators had going into Game 3, with Pittsburgh in position to go up 3-1 by winning twice on its home ice. “We can’t afford to get down 3-1,” the Penguins’ Gary Roberts said. “We know that. We’ve got to come out with a much better effort Tuesday.”
“To be composed and hang in there and play the way we had to play, I think that was a credit to our guys,” coach Bryan Murray said following his team’s pivotal 4-2 victory in Pittsburgh. 
Goaltending was Ottawa’s biggest question mark coming into this series, and that hasn’t changed. It also hasn’t mattered, because Emery’s most severe tests have come during the pregame warm-ups. Gary Roberts put a puck past him 52 seconds into the game, but that was the only goal the Penguins scored until Sidney Crosby, sliding toward the net, steered in a Malkin feed at 14:40 of the third. Although that was Malkin’s fourth point of the series, Therrien still singled him out, “He’s got to be better.”
Now that they’re down, 2-1, perhaps it’s time to try something really radical, something unlike anything they’ve done to this point. Something like playing 60 minutes of reasonably sound, intelligent and inspired, or at least, interested, hockey. Sure, it sounds crazy, but it just might work. Better than anything the Penguins came up with during a significant chunk of their 4-2 loss to the Senators in Game 3 at Mellon Arena last night, at least. “If we played our full game for 60 minutes, I’d like our chances,” defenseman Rob Scuderi said.
Ottawa’s Dean McAmmond deflated the standing-room crowd of 17,132, and the Penguins, by throwing in a shot from the right post at 18:04 of the first. “It was obviously a real blessing that we got one to tie it up before the period ended,” Murray said. And an even bigger one for Ottawa that the Penguins decided to pretty much sit out the second period for the second game in a row. Mike Comrie put the Senators in front to stay at 2:13, and Daniel Alfredsson beat goalie Marc-Andre Fleury at 7:20 and 17:12 to put the game out of reach.”It was pretty bad in the second period,” Therrien said. “Pretty bad.” And that’s the way the series is headed for the Penguins. Badly.
Anaheim 2, Minnesota 1
The Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild this season have played seven games and all have been decided by one goal. The Ducks sure have the edge, though, after using a dominant, smothering defense and superior special teams to take a 3-0 lead over the Wild in this Western Conference quarterfinal. Andy McDonald scored early, Rob Niedermayer scored late, and goalie Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 19 shots to lead Anaheim past Minnesota 2-1 on Sunday night. “We didn’t give them much,” said Niedermayer, whose goal was his first since Feb. 6. “We didn’t have many turnovers and didn’t give up any odd-man rushes and cycled the puck down low. That’s our game, that’s our strength, and that’s what we have to play to.”
Anaheim just kept clogging the lanes, Minnesota made questionable decisions and rarely found space to make crisp, clean passes — let alone attempt clear shots. But the Wild, who always stress a defensively sound approach, wished they would have put more pucks on the net. “Everyone was saying, ‘Shoot the puck! Shoot the puck!’ on the bench and then they went back on the ice and they didn’t shoot it,” coach Jacques Lemaire said. “The guys recognized the mistakes we were making and couldn’t adjust.” Marian Gaborik, the star of Minnesota’s top line, spoke Saturday about preferring to play against Teemu Selanne’s line and avoid Samuel Pahlsson and the rest of the Ducks’ checkers. But Gaborik and good buddy Pavol Demitra barely generated any chances. Ilya Bryzgalov, who has given up four goals in three games, has quietly begun a similarly impressive stretch. Jean-Sebastien Giguere hasn’t played since March 31, due to a family problem. It sure helps Bryzgalov to have such a strong defense in front of him, though. “We wanted to come in and get pucks deep, force them to go get it and be physical and play sound defensively,” Chris Pronger said. “We got away from it a little bit in the second, but played a real solid third and played well in front of Bryz. He came up with some huge stops to keep the score where it was.”
Vancouver 2, Dallas 1, OT
All is not good for the Dallas Stars when it comes to overtime or playing at home for that matter. The Vancouver Canucks have learned that to win they must take the Stars to overtime and victory eventually will be theirs. Taylor Pyatt scored on a one-timer from the left circle 7:47 into the extra period Sunday night, giving the Canucks a 2-1 victory Sunday night and a 2-1 lead in this first-round Western Conference series. Both of Vancouver’s win this series have come after the third period. The Canucks won the opener in four overtimes. “When we scored, we could tell they looked scared,” said Jan Bulis, who scored Vancouver’s first goal. “It was like they didn’t want to win it in regulation, they wanted to get it into overtime. They never found their rhythm and it was up to us to take it.”
This was the Stars’ sixth straight overtime playoff loss. They’re in a 1-9 rut since 2001, the year after they last made the Stanley Cup finals, and all but one of those losses have come with Marty Turco in goal.
Turco, who’s lost his last three postseason series, is trying to shed the label of playoff underachiever. “It’s a matter of not getting frustrated and sticking with your game plan,” Turco said. “The overtime loss speaks for itself, but I believe in these guys. The next time we get in an overtime situation we’ll be playing to win again.” Coming off his first career playoff shutout, he was headed toward another until allowing a tying goal in the third period, then Pyatt’s winner. He was good, making 35 saves. It just wasn’t good enough.
Dallas also has a rough time winning at home during the playoffs. This was Stars’ fifth straight home playoff loss covering three series. They’ll try ending the skid again in Game 4 on Tuesday night. “You need to play to win and find a way to win,” Stars coach Dave Tippett said. “We haven’t been able to find a way to make the play that counts.” The Stars went ahead 1-0 toward the end of the second period when Barnes redirected a long shot by Stephane Robidas while on the power play. It was Dallas’ seventh goal of the series, all by different players. “You’ve got to play complete games, that’s the key,” said Stu Barnes, who scored Dallas’ only goal. “We did that in Game 2. We had a great game, start to finish. Tonight we tailed off a little bit as it got later on and they took advantage of it.”
The Stars play at home again in Game 4 on Tuesday night. Maybe they need to pretend it’s the regular season, and they are on the road.
